Managing Distributed Parallel Workflow Systems Using a Multi- Agent Method

In this chapter, we introduce new research directions for agent knowledge representation and multi-agent research and we enhance distributed parallel workflow systems (DPWS) with theory and tools developed in Artificial Intelligence. This article shows the limits of the traditional workflow systems and proposes a way of overcoming them through a new workflow model which parallelizes its activities. The first section defines the concepts of task, task execution validity, dependence and consistency between tasks. The second presents a multi-agent model which is used to manage the interactions between human agents, called actors, and artificial agents. It goes on to present a multiagent software agent architecture which addresses the needs of these systems.

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